DNA structure

DNA Structure

The other day in class, Reece, Taylor, Joseph and I created a DNA structure model representing what the DNA structure is, and what it's made of. The first thing you need to know is DNA is short for deoxyribonucleic acid, and this is what makes us! As you can see, these are examples of DNA structures. The picture on the left really emphasizes the backbone of the DNA. That is one of the main focuses on the picture on the left. The picture on the right is just a 3D structure of a DNA molecule. It is also in a double helix form. When we study this structure, you need to know that the green connectors on the molecules are phosphate. There are 4 parts to this DNA molecule that are holding it together, (Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, and Thymine) and they will have to be paired up. As you can see in the left diagram, Adenine and Thymine will always be paired up. As well with Cytosine and Guanine. The Phosphate is what we called the "backbone" in class. And, basically, that's exactly what it is; it holds the molecule together to make one structure. the structure is made up of two polynucleotide chains. I visited an online website ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26821/) to figure out what the 4 parts of the structure were called. They are phosphate, sugars, nitrogenous bases, and nucleotides. If you have all of these, you have yourself a DNA molecule!